38 THE farmer’s manual. 
part soon after the first hoeing; and a small part wda 
ploughed and planted without any plaster ; and that 
part of the field on which 1 put plaster in 1795, 1 left 
without applying any thing. In a short time, the part 
of the field on which the plaster had been put in 1795, 
appeared to have the advantage, and in the course of 
the summer, the difference could be discerned at a 
very great distance. harvest, I thought I had dou- 
ble the quantity of corn on the land dressed in 1795, 
that I had on that dressed jn 1796, though the crop in 
this appeared greatly benc^tted. The land which was 
not dressed at all, did not yield more than half as much 
as the land dressCd in the hills of corn with the plaster 
in 1796, and not more than one fourth as much as that 
dressed with plaster upon the sward in 1795. In 1797, 
1 put a bushel of plaster upon an acre of this field, be- 
fore planting ; then planted all the field with Indietn- 
corn, and put plaster in the hills ; except upon the 
acre as above ; at harvest, 1 could discover no essen- 
tial diflerence. 
“ In April 1 797, 1 dressed part of n spire-grass mea- 
dow with plaster, there then being a light snow upon 
the ground, which soon went off : ten or twelve days 
after, 1 dressed the other part of the meadow with plas- 
ter; there wos soon a material difference between the 
two parts, and it continued through the season. The 
part first dressed received much the most benefit. 
“sfrom my experiments 1 have found that scatter- 
ing gypsum over the whole land was better than 
putting it upon the hills of corn ; that my pastures 
have been greatly improved by it, and that when 
I have ploughed them afterwards, on which plas- 
ter had been strewed, the crops and grasses have de- 
rived more benefit from the plaster, than if it were 
applied the same year that the crops and grasses 
were sowed. The land on which 1 have used plas- 
ter Is loamy. My neighbours have derived much be- 
nefit from it upon their sandy river land. 1 have 
been as successful with the Nova-Scotia plaster as with 
